Charlotte Sometimes
A 1981 single lifted almost line for line from a children's novel.
"Charlotte Sometimes" is a non-album single by the Cure, released by Polydor on 9 October 1981 after the band's third album, Faith. It reached No. 44 on the UK Singles Chart.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- The Cure
- B-side
- Splintered in Her Head
- Released
- 9 October 1981
- Recorded
- 16–17 July 1981 at Playground Studio, England
- Genre
- Gothic rock; post-punk
- Length
- 4:13
- Label
- Fiction, Polydor
- Writer
- Robert Smith
- Simon Gallup
- Lol Tolhurst
Lore & Background
Both sides of the single take their titles and words from Penelope Farmer's 1969 children's novel Charlotte Sometimes; Robert Smith called the song "a very straight lift", and several of its lines echo the book's opening sentences almost word for word. The B-side, "Splintered in Her Head", also takes its title from the novel, and the band returned to the book for "The Empty World" on The Top (1984).
Track listing
Side A
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charlotte Sometimes | 4:15 |
Side B
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Splintered in Her Head | 5:15 |
Side A
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charlotte Sometimes | 4:14 |
| 2 | Splintered in Her Head | 5:16 |
Did You Know?
- The 12-inch B-side carries a 10-minute live "Faith" recorded in Sydney in August 1981.
- The Rough Guide to Cult Pop called it "a goth masterpiece of doomed beauty and ruined elegance".
More in Songs & Singles
Elsewhere in The Cure
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